Soooo…and then there was Greg, why is this man so important? Why do a large percentage of us owe a debt of gratitude to him? I will let Dr. Jay henry explain why Greg Colescott is our cultural patient zero. Greg is one more person in a chain that I know I have to thank for inspiring a life less ordinary.

(…also I have some amazing photos from gregs ramp to post so everyone should know a bit about the place.)

Go grab Jay the whisky in the brown bottle, curl up in front of the fire and he will tell us all a story.

The Beginning of It All (or “I’m starting to get sick of prequels but if the shoe fits wear it”)

“The Barn Ramp, where id it all come from?” A childish question but not a question a child would ask. Where did the Barn get it’s not so humble beginnings from, and why is Jay Henry such an absolute enigma of the not so modern day skate scene you wonder (yes, you were wondering that)? All joking aside, I thought since this is the House of Steam site, and I had already posted the first picture ever taken there then it would be prudent to step back for one second and point out the man responsible for it all. The history can be easily traced back to one single man for whom I give credit for the existence of the BARN RAMP, as well as so many aspects of my current life. Who is the great man you ask? His name is GREG COLESCOTT. Let’s go back to high school in Basking Ridge NJ circa 81. The year is 1981 (oh yeah, already covered that) and it’s the beginning of a new school year (I think, sounds good at least) and Jay Henry is a teenager (yeah all you little kids weren’t even born yet!) living a meaningless boring life with no end in sight. I walked into class one day, sat in my assigned desk and on the heater unit I saw a magazine, and its name was Thrasher. I can totally still remember Neil Blender doing an Andrecht handplant at the Big O, and I thought “My God, what kind of voodoo skating is this demon performing?!?!?” I found out somehow that the magazine belong to a one Greg Colesott who had just moved to our town from California (poor bastard, lucky me). I talked to Greg about skating and he took over. Let me just explain that Greg Colescott was hands down one the most ambitious, motivated, let’s make this happen kind of guy that I have ever met. I think that he felt that if he was going to make it in this town, then he would have to make this town provide him with everything that a good ole Cali boy needed; skate boarding, punk rock and a good time, which we currently had none (It really should be pointed out at this point that I lived 45 minutes from Cherry Hill Skatepark, 45 minutes from Tom Groholski, Jim Murphy, and I was totally clueless. In steps Greg). The first thing he did was to tell me how we would build a quarter pipe, but we had to make a half pipe next. This half pipe would soon be layered in 7 layers of plywood that would end up being the barn. He got us started on the quarter pipe, talked to other kids form school, got them over the house to skate and starting teaching us tricks. I had an Ampul double kick aluminum skateboard with ACS 430 trucks and Road Rider wheels. Greg didn’t even ask, told me I had to get a new board. He ordered me (without even consulting) a Salba Bevel, Indy 169s and Blackheart wheels. Next he found a half pipe that someone was giving away in another town and found a way to transport it to our house (how he found this stuff, I have no idea) The ramp was severely kinked on one side but we used it any. THAT KINK IS WHAT NECESSITATED SO MANY LAYERS, AND WHY THE BARN EXISTS TODAY. The next thing he did was to scroll around the left side of the FM dial (The Replacements did a song called “Left of the Dial” incidentally which referred to the band always and only being played on College Radio) and found the East Orange college radio station which played punk rock and new wave for 2 hours once a week(REAL new wave, not that wimpy crap that some people thinks is new wave). How he found that station I will never know. The next thing he did was start teaching me how to skate, and what tricks I needed to learn. Then he found Tom Groholski’s ramp, then met Jim Murphy. As I stated previously, Greg was a real go getter that was not going to let anything stop him from getting what he wanted. He started looking in the local papers to find punk shows in NY and upper NJ. I went to CBGB’s with Greg for the first and only time to see MDC. I saw Dead Kennedys, DOA, SSD Control, amongst other bands at my first punk show at the Beacon Theater. I saw Gang Green warm up for the Misfits at the Polaski Club in Jersey City. Greg moved back to Cali (I think) but now lives in NC and skates at a skatepark there with my boy Denny who runs Coalition Skateboards. (http://www.myspace.com/coalitionskateboards) I just wanted to write this tedious story to tell everyone who to thank for what we had, have, and to let you know where you’re all from. Jay Henry

Judging by the hair, earrings and outfit on the girl I think we can date this one around 85-86.
This is the first of many new gems from the Ken & Steven Deitz collection. You will be blown away when you see them all everything from The Barn, to Toms and Even Jay Henry’s old ramp…which eventually became the Barn Ramp.
Sorry I have been slack lately, its time to pic up the pace again.

Being as this is The House of Steam site, I thought I would tell the story of the Origins of the Barn Ramp, complete with the first ever photo. This was taken at the first session, before we even put the coping on this side, still running on the original 2 layers of used wood. The wood came from my crappy 8′ wide backyard ramp that had to come down. This ramp was so kinked that we had continued to add layers to it over the years in an attempted to smooth it out a little. When I had to move it I realized that this of course was usable wood, so I went about the daunting task of removing one piece of plywood at a time salvaging whatever I could. I was thinking of working with Dave to add on to the Girl ramp, but Jimmy and Dennis said “to heck with that, we should build a ramp at our house!” I was weary due to the hassles my neighbors had given me so I asked what was the backyard setup like. Jimmy Kane said “Oh, we’ve got a huge backyard, and we can build it on the cement left behind from the chicken coops”. I thought that sounded pretty good and asked how far from the other houses the cement platform was and Jimmy said “way back from the houses, back by the barn”. OK, this is the point where my heart pauses, “Come again, did you say “barn?” I asked Jimmy. He immediately knew what I was thinking and told me it was full of junk. And it was; we pulled 2 kitchen sinks out of it, as well as used tires, golf clubs and other junk, not to mention almost all of the 2 X 4’s that we would need to build the ramp. I wanted to make it 9 foot transitions, a foot and a half of vert, with a 12 foot flat. After I measured though I found that there wasn’t enough room, so I had to go with the 8, 1 and 10 that made this tight little bastard the ramp that it was. Jimmy, Dennis and Stevie D were my crew, but they had jobs. Everyday I showed up early, started measuring, cutting and planning. When my crew got home, they would come back to the Barn to have me bark orders at them for hours on end, putting all of my pre cut pieces into position. Those guys were great, and I now realize just how much of an ass I could be, but they dealt with me and we got it done. Mrs. Kane at first was in shock, she had thought it was going to be maybe 4 feet tall! At the same time she was so astonished at my construction skills and thought, hell if these guys want to make it, let them do it. She was really the champion of that whole thing, I’m not sure I ever thank her appropriately for letting us have that ramp, and all the people there. Mrs. Kane, if you’re reading this, THANK YOU!!!! So it’s no shock that I was the first one that got to ride it, here I am doing a….yeah, you guess it, a handplant.

Jay Henry 2009

Well this is pretty darn cool. I wont add much except enjoy a little more oral history of The Barn…and feel free to send me more like this. As always Jay Henry is out front setting an example for us all to follow. Fricken cutting edge!

Jay, thanks for thinking of me… Those are memories that neither you nor I will ever forget…You are right.. I was in awe of your talent. Not every guy your age would have been able to build a structure of that magnitude.. I am so thrilled that those few years are embedded in all your memories and that it allowed you a time in your life that most of you will never forget.. I tried to keep you safe. Seems you all will never forget “The Warden” LOL I wish you all love, happines and success…

No pads or a helmet I am sure Mrs. Kane was away on vacation that night! Great picture Padulos!! Good Shot of how close the front door was to the flat bottom of the ramp and the battle scarred tape player.

Part 3 in our ongoing series of pictures. I am going to create a category called Wednesday Night for the interested parties to follow along. Here is a gem of Dave Padulo…Mute air on the pool coping side with Ben Cornish, Jimmy Kane and Stevie “D” Mannion looking on. The Padulo brothers had that mid eighties Tony Hawk thing going on.

Stay tuned for a lot more!

Ps. Just counted there are over 166 skaters represented in The House of Steam archive…crazy stuff!

This is a true classic, I remember Corn developing it in our high school darkroom. Corn is standing on the beam that ran across the barn above the flat to get the shot. You can also see how narrow the deck was (the other was even more narrow) The ramp took up every inch of the Barn. Rock and Dan are teenagers in this shot and Tag was riding for Alva at the time.